Hopefully she learned a lesson or two from it. She definitely doesn't filter well and probably just typed that tweet out the same way, not thinking there would be a big negative reaction. The comments were immature and the way I saw it was that she is still stinging about her own personal disappointments that she felt she had to make a comment about other girls not scoring well.

Actually, Michelle's test skate before the 2006 Olympics was shown publicly---at least a portion of it.

I remember seeing a bit of it. I remember being so happy that she was strong enough to go to Torino. And then....alas. Well, we Michelle fans can't really complain that her career was too brief. In all the skating world, we and the Plushenko fans are among the luckiest. We have gotten to see pretty much the entire arc of a career of an athlete, from young prodigy to mature competitor-interpreter-artist.

Can we still hope for that kind of development in someone like Mirai or Caroline Z.? I don't like to give up, so I will.

Wow, thank you all for posting the tweet-gate here. That's pretty pathetic in some respects that she felt that that would be OK behavior. Maybe if she spent more time working on her stuff and less time making snarky comments about other skaters she would have been at 4C and Worlds. I am disappointed that she wouldn't have been able to draw conclusions better (that people would be disgusted by this).

because if she was an "uneducated, bumbling football player" it'd be more acceptable? why does her being a skater factor into the equation?

I think the OP of that comment means it's low class for a skater who wasn't asked to participate in that event because she scored too low at her own Nationals making those kind of comments is low class as opposed to an armchair fan posting it...

because if she was an "uneducated, bumbling football player" it'd be more acceptable? why does her being a skater factor into the equation?

She was tweeting about the "lower ranked skaters at 4CC barely even scoring higher than 90 for their total score". To put this into context, she is a skater commenting on the performances of other skaters. One would expect her to be more knowledgeable about the training conditions and background of these skaters even if she doesn't know them personally. Most of the lower ranked skaters don't have the proper training facility, resources, and adequate support from their federation, so 4CC might be one of their only international competitions. As a skater, she knows these skaters train hard for competitions, but they might deliver up to the "elite standards" considering their background. A total score of 90 might be a personal best for a skater from Hong Kong, yet Mirai is shocked by her scoring ability. I don't know, this just doesn't translate into being classy. Perhaps low class is not the best term to use here - she's just not very considerate.

When we watched skaters from Mexico, South Africa and New Zealand at 4CC in Hamilton, I reminded my daughter and her friends how very lucky they were to skate in a country with ice-rinks in every community, world class training facilities and coaches, and a federation with enough money to support its skaters because the skaters from these countries really had no hope of being competitive unless they left their homes and families and moved to Canada or the US to train and their parents were rich enough to foot the bills.

Her comment is a bit tacky but she's a kid by today's standards (at least in the US) and she's grown up in the age of Twitter where people broadcast their stream of consciousness. I hate the way people pick apart every little thing skaters say. Just let them be without constantly judging them.

...she's grown up in the age of Twitter where people broadcast their stream of consciousness. I hate the way people pick apart every little thing skaters say. Just let them be without constantly judging them.

Her comment is a bit tacky but she's a kid by today's standards (at least in the US) and she's grown up in the age of Twitter where people broadcast their stream of consciousness. I hate the way people pick apart every little thing skaters say. Just let them be without constantly judging them.

We're not talking some run-of-the-mill teenager here. We are talking someone that has been in the public eye for several years and has been an elite skater for several years. She is looked-up to by many younger skaters. She should know the consequences of what she says.

I'm sure she wouldn't have enjoyed it if a fellow elite skater watched her Nationals program and said "Oh Mirai, was lifeless again and scored well below her potential. #smh" In fact we know that she reads these boards sometimes and does get bothered by all the comments. So therefore, I find it disappointing that she thought it was OK to do it to other skaters, especially low-ranking skaters dealing with tough conditions.

Do the comments make her a bad person worthy of eternal judgement? No, of course not. But my stance is that I wished she knew better and hopes that she will be more mindful of what she says next time.

Well don't get me wrong, she should have been more careful, keeping in mind she had over 17k followers and odds were at least someone was going to be offended by the comment- but............. I don't think the way some people tore her up afterward was any better. In many cases, I thought a couple of responses were worse than the original.

Well don't get me wrong, she should have been more careful, keeping in mind she had over 17k followers and odds were at least someone was going to be offended by the comment- but............. I don't think the way some people tore her up afterward was any better. In many cases, I thought a couple of responses were worse than the original.

Oh yeah, I agree with this too. I would have never said some of the stuff people tweeted, namely "the Rachael Flatt beat you mwahhahah" comment.

I thought Peter Murray's (of the Blazing Blades blog) comments were the most classy and pointed:

Kindly remember, Every elite skater was once a 90 pt total skater. Try to live up to your potential for yourself first! #4CC